300px, Mazda 767B Central Circuit, Hyōgo Prefecture The

Mazda , commonly referred to as simply Mazda, is a Japanese multinational automotive manufacturer headquartered in Fuchū, Hiroshima, Japan. In 2015, Mazda produced 1.5 million vehicles for global sales, the majority of which (nearly one m ...

767/767B are

prototype A prototype is an early sample, model, or release of a product built to test a concept or process. It is a term used in a variety of contexts, including semantics, design, electronics, and Software prototyping, software programming. A prototyp ...

racing car Auto racing (also known as car racing, motor racing, or automobile racing) is a motorsport involving the racing of automobiles for competition. Auto racing has existed since the invention of the automobile. Races of various sorts were organise ...

s that were built by

Mazdaspeed (often stylized in all-caps as MAZDASPEED) was Mazda's in-house performance division. The company was a grassroots racing team in Japan. Owned by Mazda Motor Corporation, they built production model vehicles, became involved in motorsports develop ...

for the

24 Hours of Le Mans The 24 Hours of Le Mans (french: link=no, 24 Heures du Mans) is an endurance-focused Sports car racing, sports car race held annually near the town of Le Mans, France. It is the world's oldest active Endurance racing (motorsport), endurance r ...

running under the

IMSA The International Motor Sports Association (IMSA) is a North American sports car racing sanctioning body based in Daytona Beach, Florida under the jurisdiction of the ACCUS arm of the FIA. It was started by John Bishop, a former executive direc ...

-spec GTP class. The 767 replaced the

757 757 may refer to: * Boeing 757: a narrow-body airliner * AD 757: a year * 757 BC: a year * 757 (number): a number * Area code 757 Image:Area code 757.png, The area colored red indicates the southeast corner of Virginia served by area code 757 po ...

in 1988, upgrading to a newer and larger 4-rotor '' 13J''

Wankel engine The Wankel engine (, ) is a type of internal combustion engine using an Eccentric (mechanism), eccentric rotary combustion engine, rotary design to convert pressure into rotating motion. It was invented by German engineer Felix Wankel, and desi ...

which produced nearly . Two 767s were entered at 1988 24 Hours of Le Mans, finishing 17th and 19th overall, however they finished behind a sole

which was able to finish 15th. In the

All Japan Sports Prototype Championship The , abbreviated as JSPC, formed by the Japan Automobile Federation, was a domestic championship which took place in Japan for Group C and IMSA GTP prototype cars and also featured cars that were eligible for touring car racing in its earlier yea ...

, Mazda managed 4th in the constructors' championship. For 1989, Mazda upgraded the 767 into the 767B, and initially tested it in the

24 Hours of Daytona The 24 Hours of Daytona, also known as the Rolex 24 At Daytona for sponsorship reasons, is a 24-hour sports car endurance race held annually at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida. It is run on the Sports Car Course layou ...

, where it was successful in finishing 5th overall. Later in the year, Mazda returned to Le Mans with two 767Bs as well as an older 767. The 767Bs were able to finish 7th and 9th overall, while the lone 767 was able to finish 12th. However, in JSPC, the results were not as promising, as Mazda finished a mere 5th in the championship. For

1990 File:1990 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1990 FIFA World Cup is played in Italy; The Human Genome Project is launched; Voyager I takes the famous Pale Blue Dot image- speaking on the fragility of Humankind, humanity on Earth, Astroph ...

, a single 767B was entered alongside two newer

787 787 may refer to: * Boeing 787 Dreamliner, a jet airliner * AD 787, a year * 787 BC, a year * Mazda 787/787B, a Japanese rotary-engine race car which won the 1991 Le Mans Race * Porsche 787, a race car from the 1960s * 787 series, a train model o ...

s, and was the only car of the three to finish, although in 20th overall.

References

767 IMSA GTP cars Cars powered by Wankel engines 24 Hours of Le Mans race cars Group C cars Sports prototypes {{Motorsport-stub